A Welsh Lourdes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 39, 5 October 1922, Page 23

A Welsh Lourdes

The little Welsh town of Holywell, until recently part of the patrimony of the ancient Catholic family of the Mostyns, which for more than a thousand years has been famed for its Holy Well of St. Winefride, is rapidly on the way to becoming another Lourdes (says Catholic News Service, London, for August 19). From earliest times regular pilgrimages have taken place to the Holy Well, which is supposed to mark the spot, where the Virgin Saint suffered decapitation at the hands of a. rebuffed admirer. Even during the centuries since the Reformation the pilgrimages have continued, almost without break. But the record has been beaten these early days of August. To the number of "several thousands pilgrims from all parts of England and Wales have been arriving daily. From a single parish in Liverpool four thousand pilgrims visited the shrine in one day. A number of marvellous and inexplicable cures have taken place at St. Winefride’s Well! nor are they Catholics alone who frequent this holy place. Numbers of devout Protestants visit the well in good faith, and many of them depart with their bodily sufferings alleviated. From the point of view of scientific investigation the miracles of Holywell are inexplicable. The volume of water that rushes up in thousands of gallons daily in the piscina gives no evidence of medicinal or chemical properties on analysis, and on the therapeutic basis the cures at Holywell are an absolute 'puzzle to the scientific sceptic. There is a church at Holywell which is in the charge of the Jesuit Fathers, and during the summer months devotions are conducted daily at the well. A number of discarded crutches and ex-voto offerings lining the walls testify to the numerous cures that have been, effected there bv what can be described only as Divine interposition. There is a special Papal privilege of a daily'plenary indulgence attached to the church at ' Holywell, which is under the patronage of St. Winefride.